UK legal services 2024: Legal excellence, internationally renowned

UK legal services 2024

The UK legal sector is an important economic contributor

• In 2023, the sector contributed £37bn to the UK economy, equivalent to 1.6% of the real GVA, and posted a trade surplus of £7.6bn.
• In 2022, the UK’s legal services sector employed around 368,000 people across the country.
• Leading centres of legal services sector employment include London (133,000) Manchester (13,000), Birmingham (12,000), Leeds (9,000), Edinburgh and Glasgow (7,000), Sheffield and Cardiff (4,500), and Belfast (3,344).
• In 2023, total revenue from legal services activities increased to £47.1bn.
• The Total Tax Contribution of the related professional services industry – which includes legal services – was estimated to be £30.9bn in 2023, according to research by TheCityUK and the City of London Corporation.

The UK is a hub for legal sector innovation

• The UK’s unique approach to legal services regulation continues to support legal services innovation. The UK further benefits from a highly developed legal market, a technology talent pipeline, a liberal regulatory regime and support for innovation by the government.
• Non-lawyers have been able to own and manage legal services businesses in the UK since the Legal Services Act 2007. Twelve per cent of England and Wales’ nearly 10,000 law firms are now operating as alternative business structures (ABS).

In England and Wales, and in Scotland, the proportion of solicitors working in-house has risen substantially over the past 10 years and now account for around 25% of the profession. This reflects the increasing role of lawyers as trusted business advisers.

• The UK has become a global LawTech hub, with more than 350 companies attracting more than £5.5bn of investment in 2023.
• The UK is home to 44% of all LawTech start ups in Europe.
• By 2026, LawTechUK estimates that total employment in the LawTech sector could reach 15,000 people, with GVA generated by the sector potentially reaching £1.5bn.

The international position of UK legal services

Legal services are an integral part of the financial and related professional services ecosystem that makes the UK one of the world’s leading international financial centres. Major International firms are drawn to London to access the breadth of services, seek advice from world-class legal and advisory firms, raise finance, and insure their businesses in the UK. The strength of the UK legal services sector therefore underpins the broader financial services ecosystem, and the wider economy.

The UK is a global legal centre

• The UK is the largest legal services market in Europe (valued at £43.7bn in 2022) and is second only to the US globally.
• London’s position as a global legal centre is reflected by the following market indicators:
  • There are more than 200 foreign law firms from around 40 jurisdictions.
  • All of the world’s top 50 law firms have offices in London. – Seven of the top 20 law firms in the world by revenue have headquarters in the UK.
  • Eight of the top 20 law firms in the world, based on number of lawyers in 2021/22, have their main base of operations in the UK.
  • The largest international law firms in London have 42% of their lawyers abroad.
  • There are more than 7,000 foreign lawyers practising in England and Wales.
• The international expertise of the UK’s legal professionals is demonstrated by the fact that there are more than 6,500 solicitors of England and Wales, and 800 solicitors of Scotland, who are working abroad. The number of barristers who act for clients located abroad has more than doubled over the past decade. More than 2,475 members of the Bar of England and Wales now receive instructions from abroad, earning more than £506m in revenues in 2023.

Read the full report to find out more about UK legal services and the legal sector's impact across the UK and internationally.